‘Haywire’ marking delays results of national key stage tests

THE publication of national curriculum English test results for 14-year-olds was postponed yesterday after the Government said that there were problems with the marking.

Ministers said that the chief statistician at the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) had ruled that the data was too unreliable to publish. The decision followed complaints from head teachers’ leaders about erratic marking and the late delivery of results to schools. Marks awarded to about 100,000 of the 600,000 papers are under review.

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), urged ministers last week to delay publication. The Secondary Heads’ Association (SHA) had also complained about “haywire” marking, saying that it had been deluged with complaints from schools.

A DfES spokesman confirmed that the…

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